Love the theremin. Cell block#9 is about fried.

Brian Wilson was like Jimi in a way. Brian was trippin balls too.

after seeing Hendrix I could no longer relate to Surf Music Again...

thank you evan, thank you

Brian Wilson had nothing to do with this, he was long gone by this time. This was Mike Love and the new management dumping the Boys in at the deep end of their new audience. You can hear their mounting panic near the end of Help me Rhoda when they practically beg the Dead to come back since they've been gone since Riot.

This is where the Dead come back and do the anti-hippie screed "Okie From Muskogee" and Jerry rips the tune a new asshole with some of the scathingest fills ever torn into this song. Then Carl Wilson "hopes this will be a good boogie" and you can almost hear his chin hit the ground as Jerry tears into the "Johnny B. Goode." Carl screams "whoooooo" as they launch into it and the Beach Boys learn how to get a crowd to boogie.

Pigpen by virtue of the 1967 media hype concerning "Hippies" and the fact that according to Time Mag he was the 7th most recognizable face in the world in 1968 (he was the poster image of high school drug awareness programs) plus his out and out reverence by the top pop musicians of the day -- thanks largely to jamming with them at Monterey -- everybody and all the great musicians loved Blue Ron and wanted to jam with him. Blue Ron was the ultimate in brown-eyed soul.

Besides the Beatles, the Stones, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix (Even the jazz greats of the day wanted to get in on it) there were all sorts of entertainment legends who wanted to jam with him. One of them was Brian Wilson.

On this recording it is readily evident how much
all the other Beach Boys (with or without Brian) wanted to embrace Pigpen and, as a result of their respect, trust and admiration, he leads them through a most incredible version of "Searchin'" To me the highlight of this evening.

Funny but what the GD did to me. I was never much a Brian Wilson or Beach Boys fan until the day I heard them play with the GD at Fillmore East.

Blue Ron, my friend whom I never called Pigpen, was loved and worshipped by all of the music intelligentsia and those in the know. Like Jerry, he was a reluctant frontman. None the less, he assumed the position for those early years. The guy was revered... by everyone...Hollywood...just EVERY one wanted a piece, maybe a high five, from our brother Ron.

Without much enduring exposure in those early days his visage has stood the test of time.

And we get to relive it!

Thank you God for Blue Ron

and thanks for everything else

"This is a completely different mix than any other circulating copies" - from the vault perhaps, like the recent Miller Northrup Minnesota (10/19/71) release ? I don't know but it sounds pretty good to me.

There have been recent discussions on the forum as to the merit-worthiness of The Beach Boys section. Some don't like it, claiming that it spoils an otherwise excellent Dead show. Well, excellent Dead shows aren't exactly rare (especially here) and we have all the other April '71 Fillmore East shows just a couple of clicks away, so I'll give this Dead/Beach Boys combination a big thumbs-up, if only just because it's something a little different. And, of course, there is the tongue in cheek 'Okie from Muskogee' which always makes me smile.

Beach Boys aside, the opening Dead set(s) is stellar and contains top-rank versions of the songs we know and love.

Don't take my word for it, give it a listen (while you still can), I don't think you will be too disappointed, unless you have an allergy to The Beach Boys that is.

Pretty good sq here but I still prefer 106550. It's a bit cleaner and has better levels.